Hundreds of years ago, native Chickasaw Indians called the area home. Later, when a railroad line was built just east of the village of Harrisburg, land and town developers gave the community a new name: Tupelo.

This photo, from a collection in the Lee County Library, shows Spring Street, looking north, as it appeared in 1928.

From its founding as a wide spot along a rail line from Mobile, Tupelo has grown into the region's hub city. The story of how the city and Lee County got to be where they are today is one that makes for interesting reading.

As part of its 125th Anniversary celebration in 1996, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal produced a special keepsake edition chronicling the history of Tupelo and the region. A feature of that edition was a timeline, guiding readers through Tupelo's development since 1870.

Now, with permission, the Apartment Finder & Newcomers Guide presents this timeline, along with several entries culled from additional research, to give you a glimpse of the city's and county's past.

1540: Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto passes through this area and encounters an established Chickasaw Indian civilization nestled in the wooded hills and valleys. The Chickasaws, fierce fighters, drive De Soto westward to his discovery of the Mississippi River.

1736: At the height of the French and Indian War, a bloody battle erupts near what will become Tupelo between the British-armed Chickasaws and the combined invading forces of the French and the Choctaw Indians. Known as the Battle of Ackia, the engagement leaves the area in firm British control and contributes to the Crown’s eventual domination of North America.

1864: The Battle of Tupelo takes place, pitting Union troops against Confederate cavalry intent on controlling railroad traffic supplying the Union campaign against Atlanta.

July 20, 1870: Tupelo is incorporated, four years after Lee County was carved out of Itawamba and Pontotoc counties. The town's population is 618. Henry Clay Medford is the first mayor.

1870: Lee County Journal is established. George Herndon is the first owner-editor. The present-day Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is a direct descendant of this newspaper.

Sept. 1, 1871: Tupelo Male Academy opens its doors for both public and private school students.

Sept. 11, 1871: Tupelo Female Seminary is founded.

1872: S.J. High is born. High will become one of Tupelo’s most influential civic and business leaders.

Feb. 6, 1873: Lee County Courthouse burns down.

1874: New Lee County Courthouse is erected.

1885: Private John Allen is first elected to Congress.

Oct. 7, 1886: Private John Allen drives the last spike in the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad near Guin, Ala. The railroad becomes the second to serve Tupelo.

1887: The 900-seat Tupelo Opera House opens. It lasts 25 years.

1887: First train on the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad passes through Tupelo. Banks and other business begin to relocate to Tupelo from nearby communities

Sept. 1891: Tupelo's first public school, Tupelo Graded School, opens on property previously known as Freeman's Grove on Jefferson and Gloster streets

December 1892:  Board of Trade, Tupelo's first economic development group, is formed.

1902: The Lee County Courthouse burns. It is replaced in 1904 by the structure still in use today.

1914: Lee County builds the first concrete road south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The road still exists and is travelled upon.

1920: Tupelo's population is listed at 5,055; Lee County's at 29,618.

1925: The Library Association establishes a small library on the second floor at Tupelo City Hall. The library is launched with 300 donated books.

1933: Tupelo signs the contract for electricity to become the first TVA City.

1934: George McLean buys the bankrupt Tupelo Journal.

January 8, 1935: Elvis Presley is born in a small house in East Tupelo.

The devastating tornado of 1936 wiped much of then Tupelo off the map. This view of the destruction is looking southeast from the corner of Church and Walnut streets.

April 5, 1936: A massive tornado rips through Tupelo, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands. Much of Tupelo's landscape is destroyed.

1937: Construction officially begins on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

1948:  The Community Development Foundation is incorporated in Tupelo.

July 6, 1948: Tupelo is divided into six wards.

1949: Tupelo purchases the former home of Pvt. John Allen at corner of Madison and Jefferson streets and converts it to use as the county's first freestanding library.

1950: At the North Mississippi Community Hospital, a three-story wing that increases the bed capacity to 95 is constructed and joined to the south side of the original building.

June 21, 1951: The first commercial passenger plane, a Southern Airways flight, lands in Tupelo.

1954: Tupelo native Elvis Presley cuts his first record for Sam Phillips of Sun Records Studio in Memphis. "That's All Right (Mama)" was on the A-side of the single and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" was on the flip side.

Elvis Presley performs at the 1956 Mississipp-Alabama Fair and Livestock Show at the Tupelo Fairgrounds in 1956.

1956: New rock 'n' roll sensation Elvis Presley agrees to perform at the Mississippi Alabama Fair and Livestock Show on the Tupelo fairgrounds.

1957: Elvis Presley, legendary status in music history confirmed, returns to the fair and donates his $10,000 in earnings to the city for the founding of a public park in East Tupelo.

1961: A new Tupelo High School is built and dedicated on Varsity Drive.

1961: Natchez Trace Visitors Center is built in Tupelo.

1964: Itawamba Junior College offers classes in Tupelo for the first time. Warehouse space is used for classrooms until a campus is established on Eason Boulevard in 1966.

1965: Tupelo Public Schools are peacefully integrated for the first time under the "freedom of choice" plan. Two black students from Carver High School volunteer to attend Tupelo High School for their senior year. Black teachers from Carver also "switch" places with white educators.

1966: A joint venture between the schools and the city results in the construction of the Tupelo Civic Auditorium on the site of the new Tupelo High School.

1967: North Mississippi Community Hospital's name is changed to North Mississippi Medical Center.

April 5, 1968: Official announcement is made that Tupelo has been named an All America City, one of 10 in the nation.

1969: Tupelo Community Theater is organized.

1970: Tupelo Mall on South Gloster and Downtown Mall on East Main Street open.

1971: Elvis Presley's Birthplace in East Tupelo is opened to the public.

1971: The present Lee County Library is constructed and opened at the corner of Madison and Jefferson streets.

1971: Tupelo Symphony Orchestra premieres in concert at Civic Auditorium.

1974: CREATE (Christian Research Education Action Technical Enterprises, Inc.) is founded.

1975: University of Mississippi branch opens on the Itawamba Junior College Tupelo campus.

1976: North Mississippi Medical Center increases its capacity to 550 beds and the hospital's medical staff grows to 76 physicians.

Aug. 16, 1977: Elvis Presley is found dead in his Memphis mansion, Graceland.

1978: The Elvis Presley Birthplace is designated as a Mississippi Historical site by the state Department of Archives and History.

Members of the Ku Klux Klan arrive at the Tupelo Police Department in 1978, a less than sparkling moment in the city's history.

1978: Following the conviction of two Tupelo police officers on federal police brutality charges, the city becomes marching ground for United League of Mississippi boycotters and Ku Klux Klan recruiters. The controversy and the marches last for several weeks.

Aug. 17, 1979: Elvis Presley Memorial Chapel is opened to the public.

1980: NMMC grows to 600 beds and earns the distinction of being the largest hospital in the state, both in facilities and services.

1980: Tupelo's population is listed at 23,905.

February 1984: The first commercial jet, a Southern Airways DC9, lands in Tupelo.

1985: Tupelo Art Gallery opens.

1987: The 1987 AHEAD Highway Construction program overrides a gubernatorial veto, paving the way for the quicker completion of U.S. Highway 78 and U.S. Highway 45.

1987: The first Tupelo Furniture Market is held in 30,000 square feet of rented space and draws 77 exhibitors.

1988: Tupelo voters, with 96 percent approval, pass a $21 million bond issue to finance construction of a system to pump water from the Tombigbee River, treat it, and move it 18 miles to the city. This ends the city's reliance upon a rapidly depleting groundwater supply.

May 16, 1989: Tupelo is named an All America City for the second time.

1990: The Mall at Barnes Crossing opens. The $65 million, 700,000-square-foot building houses some 80 stores.

1990: Tupelo purchases the Downtown Mall property for $2.9 million for the purpose of constructing a 9,000-seat coliseum and convention center.

1991: Phase I of the Tupelo Major Thoroughfare Program is approved by city voters. This first phase calls for improvements to various intersections in town, and the widening of Gloster Street to five lanes.

Aug. 8, 1992: The Elvis Presley Museum is opened on the park site.

1992: The new Tupelo High School campus off Cliff Gookin Boulevard is completed and opened for classes.

1992: Last Mississippi/Alabama Fair and Livestock Show is held on the Tupelo fairgrounds. Tupelo officially re-acquires the property.

1994: Major ice storm hits Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi. Power to more than 180,000 people in the state is knocked out for days.

August 1994: A four-lane U.S. Highway 78 is completed and opened from the Alabama state line to the Tennessee state line.

1994: The Lee County Agri-Center fairgrounds in Verona is completed and plays host to the first Lee County-sponsored regional fair.

1995: NMMC, the largest rural hospital in the nation, is now licensed for 647 beds. About 200 physicians representing more than 40 medical specialties are on staff.

1999: Bond sales begin for the redevelopment of the old fairgrounds.

June 1999: Tupelo is named an All America City for the third time.

November 1999: Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough Jr. is appointed to the TVA board of directors.

2000: First Baptist Church, Tupelo's oldest church, celebrates its 150th anniversary.

2000: Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough Jr. is named the director of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

August 2001: Lee County Sheriff Harold Ray Presley is killed in the line of duty.

The new City Hall building in Fairpark District in Tupelo opened in 2002. It heralded a new era of development and life for the Downtown Tupelo area.

February 2002: City leaders celebrate the opening of the new City Hall building in the old fairgrounds.

June 2002: The Tupelo Fairgrounds redevelopment area is officially renamed Fairpark District.

July 2002: The Apartment Finder & Newcomers Guide celebrates the publication of its 10th edition and completion of its fifth year of business in Tupelo.

December 2002: The Tupelo Automobile Museum opens. It houses more than 120 antique and collectors cars owned by Tupelo broadcasting businessman Frank Spain.

March 2003: Delta International, one of the first major industries lured by the Community Development Foundation, announces it plans to close its facility on South Gloster Street and move production to its Jackson, Tenn., plant.

November 2004: Officials break ground on a new facility in the Tupelo-Lee Industrial Park South for San Diego-based General Atomics. The company will build Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, for the Navy's next generation of aircraft carriers at the Tupelo location.

May 2005: Area leaders attend an auto industry show in Barcelona, Spain, to tout the newly developed Wellspring Project near Blue Springs, about 10 miles west of Tupelo. Leaders hope the 1,000-acre megasite will become home in the future to an automobile manufacturer.